- For this character's human counterpart, see Alita (2019).
Alita, known in Japan as Gally (ガリィ Garī) and originally named Yoko (陽子 Yōko), is the main protagonist of Battle Angel Alita and its sequels, Battle Angel Alita: Last Order and Gunnm: Mars Chronicle. She is known for her prowess as a practitioner of the powerful cyborg martial art Panzer Kunst. Alita's background and history were briefly hinted at in Battle Angel Alita, but were not fully explored until Last Order and Mars Chronicle, which reveals that Alita was highly instrumental in creating the world within which the series is set.
Alita takes on a variety of roles throughout the series, starting out as a hunter-warrior. She later became a motorball player and ultimately the champion after defeating Jashugan. Two years later, after saving the Scrapyard from Zapan and about to be executed, she was recruited by the Tipharean Ground Investigation Bureau to be an elite member of the TUNED, unknowingly serving as the basis for the development for a dozen combat androids known as the TUNED AR Series 2. In Last Order she spearheaded a team called the Space Angelswhich includes three of her replicas that competed in the LADDER-sponsored Tenth Zenith of Things Tournament.
Her real name is revealed to be Yoko Dornburg, first by Kaos accessing her memories, but later more in dreams and by enemies who knew her from before her great hibernation, especially her current archnemesis, Erica Walt.
In the Japanese version, she is voiced by Miki Itou, by Amanda Winn-Lee in the English version.
Appearance
Alita's appearance is that of a young woman of average height with shoulder-length dark hair. She maintains this appearance through her different cyborg bodies. The Japanese version of Angel Redux has a lineup of several characters in Last Order and shows that she is around 150cm tall in her Imaginos 2.0 body. Although she used several cyborg bodies in Battle Angel Alita, her height has tended to remain consistent. Alita's cyborg bodies beginning with her TUNED body feature permanent eye black, although it did not appear in her first Imaginos Body. In the OVAshe is depicted as having red eyes and black hair. Except for her face, which is fair skinned, the rest of Alita's body has typically been a metallic grey.
During the course of Battle Angel Alita Alita wore several outfits. In her first cyborg body, this consisted of casual wear in the form of a shirt, track pants, and sneakers. After gaining the Berserker Body, she switched to attire more appropriate for a hunter-warrior that featured black leather in the form of fingerless gloves and a sleeveless shirt and pants. Combined with knee high brown boots and a light yellow trench coat, this is how she appears in the OVA, in which she is transplanted into the Berseker Body soon after being found instead of her first civilian one. In Gunnm: Martian Memory, the trench coat is omitted.
Alita's motorball body is depicted as being purple, with the number 99 in yellow on the cover of Killing Angel, the Gunnm 3D special, and Gunnm: Martian Memory. When not on the track, Alita retained the lower half of the body, over which she wore dark pants. She switched out the upper half, over which she wore a jacket, as well as dark fingerless gloves. While using her second civilian body she is first shown wearing a hat, a short black dress, light-coloured jacket, dark fingerless gloves, dark pantyhose, and dark boots. She later wore a sleeveless dark top, dark elbow pads, dark fingerless gloves, jeans, and white shoes.
As a TUNED agent, Alita wore a black body suit and body armour, over which she typically wore a cape. The colour of the body suit and armour varies. Two illustrations that initially appeared in Business Jump and are reproduced in the Guncyclopedia depict the body suit as being red while the armour is white. The cover illustration of volume 5 of the Gunnm: Complete Edition depicts the body suit as being black and the armour a light green. In Gunnm: Martian Memory the body suit is a dark green with the armour in a lighter shade of green.
Last Order reveals that Alita has been a cyborg since she was a young girl of three, with Mars Chronicle revealing that she has been a cyborg her whole life and was "born" when the Martian Princess Kagura Dornburg contracted the maske tumor disease. She has been shown in a human body twice. During the sequence when she was recruited to become a TUNED agent by Bigott Eizenburg, she appeared as a young woman with a human body wearing the long sleeved white top and pants of an institution, although this only occurred within her mind. In the Epilogue of Battle Angel Alita, she was regenerated as a flesh and blood woman with long black hair and appeared to be taller than her typical height.
Personality
Alita is known for her fierce determination and willingness to back this up with force when necessary. This is in stark contrast to her personality when she was a young girl, as she was much less certain of herself and tended to rely on Erica for support. Nonetheless she developed into a highly competent Künstler who was assigned to carry out Operation Maulwurf in ES 386. After she was caught and sentenced to atmosphere drop as punishment, she lost most of her memories and temporarily her personality after crash landing near Star City.
When she was discovered centuries later by Daisuke Ido and resuscitated, Alita's initial personality was that of an innocent young girl. However after she saved him from the mutant woman, she began to gradually recall Panzer Kunst and also became much more confident and independent. Against Ido's wishes she decided to become a hunter-warrior in order to rediscover her memories through fighting. Alita has proven highly resilient as she has had to face her inner doubts and fears many times but has been able to rebound each time and reaffirm her belief in herself.
She suffered a psychic breakdown when she discovered that her brain had been replaced with a brain bio-chip and her body was subsequently dissolved by Super Nova's Seca attack. However after Melchizedek called out to her failing consciousness she responded, allowing her to be resurrected after fusing with Tunguska and absorbing its wormhole core. Her personality has become markedly more catlike and mischievous, a physical manifestation of which is a tail that she chose to transform from a piece of Tunguska that was stuck to her rear end.
